Best way to start?

[bettyboopjkt]

Hi, 

I'm 40 and live outside of the US but would like to get an online degree from an institution registered in the US. 

I completed high school and did some tertiary level courses over 20 years ago- lost transcripts due to moving around a lot, and in order to get copies, I have to submit forms in person (can't travel due to pandemic). 

So basically, I have no transcripts, can I even enroll in any uni-level courses or should I get an online high school diploma from somewhere like Penn Foster etc?

I'd like to get a degree in psychology, liberal arts, or English and ideally would like to complete it in less than 2-3 years, for under 5000 dollars in total if possible, then continue my studies and get a Masters. 

I would really appreciate any advice from this forum. 

Thank you!

[rachel83az]

Just to be clear, you cannot get any HS transcripts at all at this time? If that's the case, I think that pretty much limits your school choice to COSC. Liberal Arts (called General Studies) would be the easiest and cheapest. Psychology would be a little more difficult but it should be possible. What kind of Master's degree are you wanting? Some programs have prerequisites that should be met with your Bachelor's degree.

[bjcheung77]

Hey, How goes?  Which state are you from and where are you now?  I'm also curious to your answers to Rachel83AZ's questions... Anyways, No high school won't be an issue for now (yet)...  First and most importantly, setup an Acclaim/Credly account to store all your credits and work on the following courses in this particular order:

1) Invest in a second monitor for multi-tasking when you're working on ACE alternative credit courses
2) Sign up for CSM Learn Course $39 and TEEX $75 Death Investigation & Cybersecurity 101, 201, 301 (for gen ed/free electives)
3) InstantCertCredit.com - Take American Government and Spanish I (and more if you want - for gen ed/free electives)
4) Sophia.org, take everything from them but English I & II, College Readiness, and foundation courses (unless you want to)
5) When you're almost done with these courses, Message me or update this thread and I'll tell you the next steps

Basically, before you begin, you need to decide on the degree you want and the school you want it from. You can then start taking remaining credits to complete your degree of choice. If you haven't decided on the degree or school, my recommendation is that you can take courses that will transfer into the Big 3 AND the competency based education providers. So that means use more RA, ACE and skip NCCRS for now...

CSM Learn: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/CSM_Learn
InstantCertCredit: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/InstantCert.com
TEEX FREE: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Fr..._of_Credit
TEEX Paid: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/TEEX
Sophia.org: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List

[bettyboopjkt]

Just to be clear, you cannot get any HS transcripts at all at this time? If that's the case, I think that pretty much limits your school choice to COSC. Liberal Arts (called General Studies) would be the easiest and cheapest. Psychology would be a little more difficult but it should be possible. What kind of Master's degree are you wanting? Some programs have prerequisites that should be met with your Bachelor's degree.

Thank you for replying! 

I've tried. :
You have to get them in person, and you can't get someone to pick it up on your behalf either. Sigh. 

I'm Australian, but I live in Indonesia. 

The work I do currently isn't affected by my educational background, but it's always bothered me that I didn't complete my degree and then pursue a higher qualification. 

Ideally, I'd like to get a Master's either in Psychology or something related to English.

---

Hey, How goes?  Which state are you from and where are you now?  I'm also curious to your answers to Rachel83AZ's questions... Anyways, No high school won't be an issue for now (yet)...  First and most importantly, setup an Acclaim/Credly account to store all your credits and work on the following courses in this particular order:

1) Invest in a second monitor for multi-tasking when you're working on ACE alternative credit courses
2) Sign up for CSM Learn Course $39 and TEEX $75 Death Investigation & Cybersecurity 101, 201, 301 (for gen ed/free electives)
3) InstantCertCredit.com - Take American Government and Spanish I (and more if you want - for gen ed/free electives)
4) Sophia.org, take everything from them but English I & II, College Readiness, and foundation courses (unless you want to)
5) When you're almost done with these courses, Message me or update this thread and I'll tell you the next steps

Basically, before you begin, you need to decide on the degree you want and the school you want it from. You can then start taking remaining credits to complete your degree of choice. If you haven't decided on the degree or school, my recommendation is that you can take courses that will transfer into the Big 3 AND the competency based education providers. So that means use more RA, ACE and skip NCCRS for now...

CSM Learn: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/CSM_Learn
InstantCertCredit: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/InstantCert.com
TEEX FREE: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Fr..._of_Credit
TEEX Paid: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/TEEX
Sophia.org: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/So...lency_List

Hi!
Thanks so much for replying!

I'm Australian but live in Indonesia. 

I decided to pursue an American degree because I realised there were cheaper options available if I looked around more closely, and would be able to have more flexibility around how quickly I could complete courses. 

I will definitely sign up and start completing courses I can use for credit. 

And I will definitely DM you to ask for more advice if that's ok. 

I really appreciate your time.

[rachel83az]

TESU and UMPI have English degrees but you need proof of HS graduation. As I understand it, Australians aren't really going to be permitted to enter/leave Australia for another 8-12 months, vaccinated or not. You could complete all of the coursework required for either of those schools and cross your fingers that you'll be able to get to Australia sooner but... I wouldn't personally count on it right now. COSC will be the fastest and easiest for you, but they don't have an English degree.

You might be able to get a general studies degree with a concentration in English but it looks like that would be more expensive than what you're wanting. That leaves either Psychology (which would require at least 9 credits at COSC instead of the standard 6) or general studies with concentrations in psychology and either business or history.

[bettyboopjkt]

TESU and UMPI have English degrees but you need proof of HS graduation. As I understand it, Australians aren't really going to be permitted to enter/leave Australia for another 8-12 months, vaccinated or not. You could complete all of the coursework required for either of those schools and cross your fingers that you'll be able to get to Australia sooner but... I wouldn't personally count on it right now. COSC will be the fastest and easiest for you, but they don't have an English degree.

You might be able to get a general studies degree with a concentration in English but it looks like that would be more expensive than what you're wanting. That leaves either Psychology (which would require at least 9 credits at COSC instead of the standard 6) or general studies with concentrations in psychology and either business or history.

Yes, it's difficult to get into Australia right now.

General Studies with a concentration in psychology and business sounds great, actually.

This has been really helpful--COSC it is!

[rachel83az]

In that case, you're going to get the majority of your credits through Sophia and Study.com. But, before you start taking them, you're going to want to check out TEL (https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/TEL_Learning) and ONU (https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Ol...University) Olivet won't let you take classes without proof of graduation OR attendance at another American college/university. So, what I would recommend that you do, is to take 1-2 courses at TEL and then enroll at Olivet for the slightly cheaper courses of $150 vs. $200USD. But, if you like TEL, you could totally continue with them.

You will need to take 8 classes at TEL and/or Olivet for a total of at least 24 credits. You don't need to start taking anything right now, simply look at the course descriptions and choose what attracts you the most.

Once you have your list of 8 courses, come back here and let us know what you've chosen. Then we can further help you on your journey and tell you what you do (and do not) need to take.

You'll definitely need to head on over to Sophia.org and sign up. From there, you would start taking courses that do NOT overlap with the ones you chose at TEL/ONU. (We can help you with figuring this out.) For instance, you would not take US History at Sophia if you decided to take it from TEL. I would recommend that you NOT take English Comp at Sophia either. Either ONU or Study.com would be easier than those particular Sophia courses.

You don't necessarily have to take Sophia.org courses in any specific order but there are recommendations for courses that should be taken close to one another at: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sophia.org As outlined in the course-taking strategy section, it's also recommended that you only take 1 class at a time that has any Touchstones (assignments that need to be turned in) because you are only permitted to take 2 courses at a time.

You can also get a good idea about the requirements here: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Sa...ts_Roadmap

---

Also, if you are going with COSC: do NOT take the TEEX courses. They are NOT accepted. CSM Learn is accepted but not as a math credit. InstantCert is also NOT accepted. The only alt credit sources accepted by COSC are here: https://www.charteroak.edu/catalog/curre...r_inst.php

[LevelUP]

Hi, 

I'm 40 and live outside of the US but would like to get an online degree from an institution registered in the US. 

I completed high school and did some tertiary level courses over 20 years ago- lost transcripts due to moving around a lot, and in order to get copies, I have to submit forms in person (can't travel due to pandemic). 

So basically, I have no transcripts, can I even enroll in any uni-level courses or should I get an online high school diploma from somewhere like Penn Foster etc?

I'd like to get a degree in psychology, liberal arts, or English and ideally would like to complete it in less than 2-3 years, for under 5000 dollars in total if possible, then continue my studies and get a Masters. 

I would really appreciate any advice from this forum. 

Thank you!

Maybe instead of trying to jump through 20 hoops, you should just take the GED online and move on if you can:
https://ged.com/take-the-ged-test-online/

[rachel83az]

Maybe instead of trying to jump through 20 hoops, you should just take the GED online and move on if you can:
https://ged.com/take-the-ged-test-online/

It looks like that's only available for Americans living in the US and not Australians residing in Indonesia.

[P226mem]

hmmmm... I can't find that I sent a high school transcript to TESU as proof. Did others have to send a transcript of high school graduation to TESU? If it matters on that, I'm US citizen in the US.